My Father

My father always promised me

That we would live in France

We'd go boating on the Seine

And I would learn to dance

We lived in Ohio then

He worked in the mines

On his dreams like boats

We knew we would sail in time

My sisters on the road, and ran away

To Denver and Cheyenne

Marrying their own grownup dreams

The lilacs and the man

I stand behind the young girls dreams

Only danced alone

Hoping, hoping that my fathers dreams

would take me home.

I live in Paris now

My children dance and dream

Hearing the ways of a miner's life

In words they've never seen

I sail my memories of home

Like boats across the Seine

And watch my fathers eyes

Watching the setting sun

Set in my fathers eyes again